Champion Leagues

Did Kepa help Real Madrid keeper Lunin save Silva penalty?

byFootball Insomnia

April 18, 2024

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Did Kepa help Real Madrid keeper Lunin save Silva penalty?

Lunin stood his ground in the middle and calmly collected Silva’s penalty

One of many talking points to come from Real Madrid knocking Manchester City out of the Champions League quarter-final was Bernardo Silva’s weak penalty in the shoot-out.

As usual with social media, there are theories circulating that Madrid’s keeper Andriy Lunin might have been helped by his team-mate, the on-loan Chelsea stopper Kepa Arrizabalaga – with TV footage showing the two players deep in conversation, hands covering mouths, just before the spot-kicks.

Luka Modric took Madrid’s first penalty and saw it saved by Brazilian Ederson, but the momentum swung back in Real’s favour when City midfielder Silva lofted the ball tamely into Lunin’s arms.

The Ukrainian keeper was a picture of calm as he planted his feet and easily collected Silva’s shot.

Kepa and Lunin talking with mouths covered in the dug-out before penalty shoot-out. — Kepa and Lunin were seen in conference, with hands covering mouths, just before the shoot-out

So here’s the reasoning…

In the 2019 EFL Cup final penalty shoot-out between Chelsea and Manchester City, Kepa famously refused to come off for replacement keeper and penalty expert Willy Caballero and faced five City penalties as the Blues lost the shoot-out 4-3.

During that shoot-out, Silva scored his penalty straight down the middle, as Kepa dived to his right. Social media ‘detectives’ were quick to dig that clip out and post online.

Lunin told reporters after the match that conversations with Madrid’s coaches had informed his decisions on the night.

“I needed to take a risk with one of the kicks,” the 25-year-old told Movistar Plus+, adding, “we picked one [to stay in the middle] and thank goodness it worked out in our favour.”

He told Marca afterwards there “were three players with whom we had doubts about whether to stay in the middle or not”, adding: “In the end we chose only one because there are five shots and you can’t stay in [the middle] all of them.”

Davide Ancelotti, assistant coach and Carlo’s son, added that Kepa had influenced the choice of Real’s penalty takers.

Former Madrid midfielder Mateo Kovacic also had a penalty saved by Lunin after firing it just to the keeper’s right – with TV footage showing match-winner Antonio Rudiger frantically gesturing to Lunin to dive in that direction.

But was it another, more straightforward factor that affected Silva’s penalty miss?

The Portuguese playmaker had to wait about 40 seconds before taking his spot-kick as City fans in the crowd refused to give the ball back. On TNT, former City defender Joleon Lescott said he thought that that “took him out of sync and out of his rhythm”.

Rio Ferdinand added: “It’s a very long time when you are waiting there and you are thinking ‘now do I change position? Now do I change where I go?'”